Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1887-06-29

BROOKLYN, June 19th.-This morning a
the Tabernacle the Rev. T. De Witt Tai
mage read previous to the sermon, portions
of Scripture descriptive Of ancient cities, aut
gave out the hymn
"Fields are white the harvest waiting,
Who will ibear the sheaves awayr'
His text was: ''And the man of the city
said unto Elisha, behold, l pray thee, til,
situation of this city is pleasant, as my Lore
seeth; but the water is .naught, aud the
ground barren. And he said, bring me q
new cruise, and put salt therein. Aud they
brought it to him. Aud he went forth un
to the spring of the waters, and cast the sali
in there, and said, thus said the Lord,
have healed these waters; there shall not be
from thence any more death or barren land
So the waters were healed unto this day."
2 Kings ii. 1922. DIR. Talmsge said. 1t IL
difficult to estimate how much of the pros.
perity and health of city are dependent
upon good water. The time when, through
well-laid pipes and from safe reservoir, au
abundance of water, from Croton, Ridge.
wood, or Schuylkill, is brought into the
city, is appropriately celebrated with oration
and pyrotechnic display. Thank God ev
cry day for clear. bright, beautiful, spark.
ling water, as it drops in the shower, OF
tosses up in the fountain, or rushes out al
the hydrant.
The city of Jericho, notwithstanding all
its physical and commercial advantages, was
lacking in this important element. There
was enough water, but it was diseased, and
the people were crying out by reason thereof
Elisha the prophet comes to the rescue. He
says: "Get me new cruise; fill with salt
and bring it to me-" So the cruise of salt
was brought to the prophet, and see him
walking out to the general reservoir, and he
takes that salt and throws it into the re-
servoir, and 10! all the impurities depart,
through q supernatural and divine influence,
and the waters are good and fresh and clear
and all the people clap their hands and lift
up their faces in the gladness. Water for
Jericho-clear, bright, beautiful, God-given
water.
At different times I have pointed out to
you the fountains of munipical corruption,
and this morning propose to show you
what are the means for the rectifcation of
those fountains. There are four or five
kinds of salt that have cleansing tenden-
cy. So far as God may help me, I shall
bring cruise of salt to the work, and empty
it into the great reservoir of municipal
crime, sin and shame, Ignorance and abomi-
nation.
In this work of cleansing our cities have
first to remark that there is work for the
broom and the shovel that nothing else can
do. There always has been intimate con-
nection between iniquity and dirt. The
filthy parts of the great cities are always
the pavements of the Fourth Ward, New
York, illustrate and symbolic the charac-
ter of the people in the Fourth Ward.
The first thing that bad man does when
he is converted is thoroughly to wash him
self. There we're, this morning, on the way
to the different churches, thousands of men
in proper apparel who, before their CONVEX
sion, were unfit in their Sabbath Dress
When on the Sabbath see man unclean-
ly in his dress, my suspicious in regard to
his moral character are aroused, and they
are always well founded. So as to allow no
excuse for lack of ablution, God has cleft
the continents with rivers and lakes, and has
sunk FIVE great oceans, and all the world
ought to be clean. Away, then, with the
dirt from our cities, not only because the
physical health needs an ablution, but be-
cause all the great moral and religious in
terests of the cities demand it as positive
necessity. A filthy city always has been
and always will be a wicked city.
Through the upturning of the earth for
great improvement cur city could not be ex-
pected to be as clean as usual, but for the
dirt of Brooklyn for the last six
months there is no excuse. 1t is not merely
a matter of dust in the eyes and mud for the
shoes, and of stencil for the nostrils, but of
morals for the soul.
Another corrective influence that we
would bring to bear upon the evils of our
great Christian cities is a Christian printing
press. The newspapers of any place are
the test of It's morality or it's immortality
The newsboy who runs along the street with
a roll of papers under his arm is a tremen-
dous force that cannot be turned aside nor
resisted, and at his every step the city is
elevated or degraded This hungry all-de-
vouring American mind must have some
thing to read, and upon editors and authors
and book publishers and parents and teach
ers rest the responsibility of what they shall
read. Almost every man you meet has a
book in his hand or newspaper in his
pocket. What book is it you have in your
hand? What newspaper is it you have in
your pocket? Ministers may preach, re-
formers may plan, philanthropists may toll
for the elevation of the suffering and the
criminal, but until all the newspapers of the
land and all the booksellers of the land set
themselves against an iniquitous literature
until then we shall be fighting against
fearful odds. Every time the cylinders Of
our great publishing houses turn they make
the earthquake. From them goes forth a
thought like an angel of light to feed and
bless the world. or like an angel of darkness
to smite it with corruption and sin and
shame and death. May God by His omnip
otent spirit purify and elevate the Ameri
can printing press!
l 60 on further and say that we must de
pend upon the school for great deal Of
correcting influence. Community can nc